Waiting to Exhale
by xXxJazzy B. RealxXx
Summary: There’s something about a little, underaged girl and an ageless aritificial lifeform that entices us. A collection of randomized ShadAmy moments. Rating may change, depending on violence content.
1. Prologue

**__*****~* : : Prologue : : *~***

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** A/N**: It's a fanfiction full of randomized moments between Shadow and Amy Rose, mostly conversations or (sometimes) events big and small, including their moments with other characters.

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**Hnn~...**

Between the two of us, I don't remember who started it. My memory isn't like an elephant's, because I have the mind of a girl, and a girl's mind doesn't weigh on yesterday's! It's too busy anticipating today's and tomorrow's. Oy! It was probably me who started it! It's _always _me; I'm one of few to have the power to drag someone into a friendship and forge their name on that life-permanent contract with or without their permission.

Either way, the experience from what started opened up a new perspective for the both of us to learn from. It's not until we started it-or until _I started it_ if you just _gotta_ point your greasy little fingers-did I know what **"She Will Be Loved,"** was talking about when Adam Levine wrote those lyrics, _"It's not always rainbows and butterflies, it's compromise; it moooves~ us alooong~" _Of course, the title of that song has nothing to do with me or him. If you're waiting for me to tell you a fable about how, "he cheers me up when Sonic splits," you can forget it.

...The 'him' I'm talking about would never agree with all this, though. Not out loud. Sometimes, he gets stuck on a fence between wanting to go and wanting to stay. He wants to be the first to get away - _yes, I know you do! I can sense the tension in your shoulders when you walk next to me _- but he doesn't want me to be the first to leave. He secretly wants me to shut up, but he always stays to listen. His shoulder angel and devil are constantly in a fight about it. But honestly, I think they're _both_fond of me.

The way he talked and walked with me the first day hinted that he wanted to stop the conversation when the small talk began. At that point, I think it was his shoulder-angel who made him stick around, because it's true that he has _some_ sense of manners for girls compared to the way he treats boy, and he's one of those people who won't judge me as careless or a waste of time right off the bat. Now, that's not because he really _knows_ me, that's because he has a point of view of me that's based off what he heard from my insight on Ark, so he defines me - _us _- by our promise and my view on humanity. It's what he judged me on "right off the bat." _"I have to keep my promise to Maria...AND you."_ It's pretty naive of him, if you ask me. Or maybe he's the only person who _does_ really know me; that speech proved who I could be and how my heart worked inside of a situation that didn't revolve around Sonic, but _me_. I showed a lot of maturity, a lot of belief and faith in things outside of romance.

Still, Shadow's distant when we talk. But that's all it really chalks up to: Shadow is _just distant. _It's "nothing personal." Rouge and Omega may be his main associates, but if you notice, they're never in his company unless they're all working under a partnership, and he's never shown interest in opening himself up to them, crossing the ally-line, or sharing any social life-lines with either partner. When the day ends and the goals have been reached, they go their separate ways. Instead of being "really close friends," they're more like casual allies who have all grown to have their teammates' backs in the heat of battle. It's almost like his relationship with Sonic, which is only acidic because of their cliche rivalry. Everyone gets that mixed up to where I feel like no one really pays attention to the relationships between our little groups, but fill in the spaces with their own myths and assumptions. I think that's how he prefers it with Rouge and Omega, though. With everyone, really.

But if he wanted to prefer that with me, then he should've tried harder to ward me off the first day I set out to get reacquainted with him again.

I had spied something black and red between the falling snowflakes on the day before Christmas, the day all this started. Heh, the two colors embodied themselves together to make a familiar hedgehog who happened to be standing in front of a display window on the sidewalk.

I wondered what was behind that store window for him to be looking at it so hard...

It mattered not, because he was in front of it! That was the bigger picture, and the nostalgia of that picture was that I didn't ever get to see him. I didn't even remember what he sounded like when he spoke. Something smooth and soft-spoken, I think. Had a bit of an accent to it. But I did, and _do_remind myself of the things he said to me on the Ark-the things I ached to ask him ever since Rouge didn't let me see him at her club when she said he was knocked unconscious that brief time.

My eyes must've looked like two huge, beaming spectrometers when I saw him that day.

I jogged up to him and chimed my singsong greeting like I would to any old acquaintance, "Shadow!"

He glanced at me at the twitch of his ear.

"...Hi!" I tied my fingers behind my back and smiled really big for him, showing all my teeth.

He looked at my smile and then looked me right in the eye. I, on the other hand, waited for him to open up, willing him to remember that I'm the one his promise is also tied to; hoping that his oath would be enough to make us the friends we could've been had he not lost his memories; wanting him to say what Sonic won't say.

And he said it, with monotone, formal politeness, "...Good evening."

I searched him-eyes running back and forth between his without speaking, and giggled a little giggle. I knew right then and there, that he could only tolerate so much small-talk.

But no one ever told us what this little coincidence had in store for us.

...Isn't that right, Shadow?

...And I think when you see all those things that coincidence had planned for us, you'll call me a masochist for giggling.


	2. The Potential in Christmas

_**The Potential in Christmas**_

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**Author's Note: **An extremely old, medicore, but genuine Shadow/Amy/Sonic one-shot about "Shadow's" Christmas. No rivalry or Sonic-bashing. Like _500 Days of Summer_, I'm actually going to connect the events together, but most of them will be randomized and out of order.

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"...?" The black hedgehog frowned at the red box in his hands.

"...!" The blue hedgehog shook the blue poka-dotted box ribboned in his hands.

Both hedgehogs, one with _that signature glare_ and one with _that signature grin_, panned their eyes up to the gift-giver.

"Well?" Amy Rose clapped her hands together.

She was standing in the middle of Ms. Vanilla's cafe shop with her voice blasting so loudly, that it drew enough attention from the party goers. Her frilly Christmas dress and extravagant ribbons swayed from here to there, there to here; the girl just couldn't stop twirling her skirts!

"Don't just stand there gaping at them like two stone hedgehogs, sillies! Open them!"

The two hedgehogs looked at each other, and then stripped the gift-wrapping off their presents. Shadow gently sliced and peeled back the folds of the wrapping to preserve it, while Sonic tore into his and tossed the wrapping aside.

"...Hmph?" Shadow squinted once he nicked off the last of the wrapping, just to find a picture-frame without a picture. He frowned at his reflection in the glass and he blinked.

"...Huh?" Sonic's ears wiggled as he opened the dainty white box, just to find that the treasure was a familiar bracelet stringed together by pink seashells. His eyes shimmered at their pink shine and he awed to himself.

Shadow's deep rumble sought Amy's intentions, "What are..."

"...These for?" Sonic's loony tune finished.

Amy bit her lip to hold her teeth in her mouth, tickled pink at the two egotistic heroes who were now proving that their real charm lied in their raw innocence. "Sonic, don't you remember? You broke your other one."

"Huh?" Sonic's gaze surfaced to Amy's after fiddling with the bracelet.

The sweat crawled down the back of his neck like slimy caterpillars once he found that girlishly dreamy smile on her face again.

"The first one I made you," She clasped her hands behind her back, rocking off her heels to lean into his personal space and scare the blue off his back, "Remember, Sonie? The first one I made you was that good luck charm to protect you from drowning when you're in the water, since you can't swim so well." Her peachy cream cheeks perked up with jolly joy, "I wanted to make you a new one, one that wouldn't break." She captured Sonic's hands with her small mittens, nevermore clueless to the blush rosing his cheeks. "Do you like it, Sonie? I made it a lot prettier for you, too!"

"Daaah..." Sonic turned his face away, scratching his cheek with a finger. "Sure, Amy! Yeah, I remember!" '_Geez, girls are weird.'_

He didn't know what to do around them when they were always brave enough to break personal boundary laws. That _was_ a law, wasn't it? From a look around at all the females clinging and cuddling their right-hand spouses in the diner, it didn't look like girls grew out of that smothering habit when they became women, either. Yeesh, no wonder he didn't like relationships. As Vanilla Rabbit brushed past them, humming a little tune and swiping lent off her burgundy dress, Sonic begged her with puppy eyes to come and sweep him away from the pink trap. She caught his look, and smiled with the wag of her finger.

Amy's shoulders bounced up and down with her giggle at Sonic's sheepishness, not realizing that his groan had been from Vanilla's neglect. After lacing the bracelet around his wrist, that pink trap linked her hands behind her back and righted herself back up.

Now in a more comfortable situation without her breathing on his face, Sonic rubbed the back of his head and held the bracelet up to let his eyes appreciate it when words failed him, "I'll try not to break this one, I guess."

In the background of this predictable romance between a blue boy and a pink girl, the black hedgehog stood out like a thorn in a bush. He looked between the hedgehogs, glaring up into their faces and hoping to burn the meat off their cheeks with it so that they'd remember his presence, all the while holding this unbefitting picture frame like a child whose mother had forgotten him in the gift store. Busy bodies passed between the black and the pink with her blue as the tiny Christmas party didn't stop to pity him.

To throw it all out there, it wasn't often that, _"Team Dark"_ and _"Sonic Heroes"_ could come together to agree on one cause: _Christmas_. _"Team Dark"_ were more of unexpected guests dropping in on Rouge's account, with the white bat bluffing that, _"crashing the party would be more fun." _But Shadow had never been socially or even casually involved with Rouge and Omega beyond battle once they all stepped out of the revolving doors of G.U.N's Agency, so this was new. He was resistant to let either mate into him any further than what was given, but he respected and appreciated them both for every hair he could count on his black coat, and found himself favoring team ethnics. At the most, he was able to finally appreciate this value Sonic had valued within himself, but once all was said and done, Sonic and Shadow paid little attention to their "friends" at the end of the day and preferred to voyage on their own, comfortable in their independent skins; though, Shadow more than Sonic.

Shadow's alliance with his team was neutral, for he had far more interest in priority, responsibility and personal endeavor than "hanging out." That ally-almost-friends link was prohibited to be crossed beyond those borders under his own jurisdiction of Shadow-law. Being the lone wolf had its own regime, and he had no energy or initial desire to invest into the kind of "let's-sometimes-hang-out-friendships" Sonic _sometimes_ had with his own teammates, and he most certainly had no intentions on getting romantic with Rouge, something Sonic always teased about. A mixture of romance and duty was something he wanted nothing to do with; it would get in the way of his priorities to him, something he put first above himself.

Occasional team mates were certainly not lovers for a reason, but his childhood made his subconscious look for a far different experience. If he were ever to choose to one day indulge into a relationship, [which he wouldn't, because his immortality would scream, _"Yeah right!"_] the potential partner would have to be far away from his mercenary world, somewhere in which his priority-barriers didn't exist.

They'd have to be much closer to what he sought and missed in life; much closer to his _destiny, _his_ promise_. To understand and bring happiness to humanity upon supposedly being, "pure and perfect," a "pure" partner with that understanding of love and virtue would better complement his creation. The scientist that once called him his son buried it deep inside of him, but under the heaps of remodifications, the ability to act with Maria's purity [as the professor said he also had] was stunted. So deep it lies, that he still hadn't been able to resurface it. There was a potential moment - back on ARK, in a room between a pink and a black hedgehog - but her Patrick Stewart speech didn't stick to the bottom of his shoes.

He knew his purpose, his promise, his life mission, but he had yet to unlock his _"inner Maria"_ even then. Perhaps if there was an influence to constantly rub against his skin? Whatever was in the line of his destiny - out of purpose and life - was what he was drawn to _unwilling or not_, regarding once and for all that he was not attracted to any tangible being in his present life _romantically or not_.

Happiness and compassion for others was his duty, but self-happiness and self-compassion would eventually become a need he'd have to shimmy. Well, it couldn't be helped. Such a potential person to have such a potential experience with was out of reach one way or another, were they not? He'd have to learn it from himself, as usual.

As Shadow looked off from Sonic and Amy as they contuined their off-beat conversation, he scanned the cafe shop for his team mates out of impatience. Right now, from the looks of what one team mate was doing, specifically Rouge the white bat, he wouldn't have much luck lingering around. She was having more 'fun' irritating Knuckles than crashing the party. He looked back down at the framework Amy Rose gave him.

Shadow hadn't been ignored all night, at least. There were a few characters that wouldn't allow it. Sonic and Rouge took turns like musical chairs at nagging him to get involved with the party activities, and though his grunt was all he needed to let the entire party know that he'd rather be attacked by twenty Chao, he never truly resented the more subtle attention. He didn't mind the fact that he wasn't shoved into the spotlight; Sonic's attention-hog personality had its advantages, but he wasn't being forgotten about either. He didn't know if that was good or bad. Whichever way that went, it was definitely something that would take getting used to.

He wasn't used to the orange rabbit named, "Cream" giving him a few minutes of her time to chime that she was glad he, "let Rouge force him here," in the most cheerful obliviousness he'd ever heard out of anyone's mouth.

He wasn't used to the mother rabbit named, "Vanilla" graciously checking up on his well-being and offering him treats or beverages that he turned down as formally as possible.

He wasn't used to Tails giving him direct eye-contact and even passing him a smile without his nerves twitching in his cheek.

He wasn't used to Knuckles the Echidna being so respectful as to holding a very wise, yet gullibly trusting conversation with him about Chaos Energy through the Master Emerald.

He wasn't used to Sonic almost sticking to him like glue and drying his patience until he thirsted for space.

Shadow looked up.

...But he was used to one person from the opposing group.

Said person was teasing her blue crush for blushing under her influence. Puppy love between teenagers was never interesting to him, but it amused him to find that Amy Rose was Sonic's main weakness. One glance from her, and he'd sweat pellets before breaking for the corner. There were monsters in the closet, boogey-men under the bed, Big Foot and ghosts, and then there was Amy Rose. Other than water, she was Sonic's scare-crow. She couldn't handle the enthusiasm of her crush and he couldn't handle his own feelings _or_ her enthusiasm, so cat and mouse was their relationship.

Luckily, Shadow never received that jump-happy glomp from her. She chatted with him the way she did a normal person; to citizens she was the charming Girl Next Door, the Ingenue. One day, he would tell her that she could persuade the most tyrannical villian to follow her biddings with far more success than Rouge's seduction; genuinity was hard to reject, you see. It wasn't until she saw her heartthrob did her personality morph into a different creature, particularly the Tsundere or Hulk.

Mattered not; he was not the target of her bipolarity, but he did wonder why Sonic's presence or the mere mentioning of him made it impossible for her to stick to one personality trait. She'd been genuinely consistent beforehand, especially in his presence. Though for Shadow, without having an Amy-phobia, it seemed that talking to her coherently was near impossible anyway. Her hyper-happy spirit practically took up one whole room to the point where there was absolutely no room for his callousness or offhandedness to squeeze on in there.

She was too endearing to be frustrating and too frustrating to not be endearing, the kind of mixed feeling that left one dumbfounded as you allow her to run circles around your stupor. She even ran circles around Sonic and Silver, so how could Shadow achieve superiority? He couldn't father her into sitting in one place! His voice wasn't loud enough! If he hung around long enough, he came to realize that she could suck him into her bubble of influence and was then considered a friend by her. That innocence shrunk him into feeling small, clueless, simple, and naive; just like her, and suddenly they were both children.

His voice would even drop monotony when greeting her to where others mistook her for being a special exception in his eyes, when it was really just him being socially inexperienced. He didn't know how to be around her, or how to speak, for that matter. While she also had his sacred promise in her possession, she hadn't given him a reason to use his indifferent voice on her as he could on Sonic or Rouge, which was a form of his familiarity with them, and he wished she would so he could retain some kind of in-character consistency.

Yet, he felt more comfortable in her company because of this. Much more comfortable than being provoked into defense mode when his partner's conversations always twisted into her sarcastic word games and imposing anaylzations. Rouge's approach on him had always tested the weight of his pride and turned him off from engaging with her any further than a business discussion or blunt exchange for information. He'd give her personal appreciation if she offered him her half-cloaked compassion, but at the end of the day, it was back to glaring at her to fork over something.

Yes, the pink was quite odder; sugar, spice, and everything unpredictable. Earlier this evening, he was shocked to hear her announce her gift to Rouge, and found himself admiring her for putting aside their usual rivalry to show holiday consideration. Behind Rouge's snooty, _"Oh, you shouldn't have!"_- Shadow could see that she secretly felt just as caught off guard, and, because she had it in her, perhaps even touched.

So when all the two hedgehogs in front of Shadow did was exchange girly giggles and awkward grins, he let his attention wander to the pink shells dangling from Sonic's wrist.

_'Hmph. So all that is needed to conquer this blue hedgehog is a nearby lake? The mere act of drowning him?'_ Shadow turned his head back down to revisit his reflection in the picture frame's glass. '_Perhaps the Doctor enjoys his own failures in all his dilly-dally. Perhaps Sonic's existence is essential to him.'_

"Oh, I'll be right back! Coming, Ms. Vanilla!" Amy waved off Sonic and returned to the mother rabbit.

Shadow browsed the room with a controlled face to keep his eagerness' swelling down; he wanted her to explain the meaning of giving this contraption to him!

"Hey," Sonic muffled out, cheeks stuffed with cupcakes.

He swallowed the whole batch down in one gulp before cleaning his mouth with the side of his glove.

"Lemme take a look at that. A picture-frame, yeah?" Sonic snatched the gift from Shadow, who had been lost in his own mind fields.

The loony-toon of a hedgehog flipped it over and examined it, scratching between his ears when he couldn't find its value.

"What'cha gonna do with something like this? Put a picture of yourself in it? Amy must know you better than I do!"

"Cute. Very, _cute_...but who told you to touch what doesn't belong to you, blue hedgehog?" Shadow snatched it out of Sonic's hands. Glaring him down for ten seconds tops, he turned the other cheek with the swing of his quills. The signature, "Hmph," was enough being said.

"Stay frosty, will ya? It's Christmas!" Sonic winked as he dug in his ear with his pinky.

"Yes, and your tasteless jokes amuse me to no end."

"Huh..." Sonic sanded the ear wax between his fingers before flicking it off, totally ignoring Shadow. "Wonder how that got in there. You see that?"

Muting him out, Shadow opened his palm and passed a hand over the picture frame's glass, wiping away the fog...but then blinked to see the pink hedgehog's face looming over his own reflection.

"I picked this present for you because I know that memories mean a lot to you," Amy's words drove Shadow to pick his head up and lock eyes with her. "And since you've been here, you've been making a lot of new ones with us. But before that," she placed her hand's weight on the picture frame. "You lost all your old ones. This picture frame is for you to hold all your new memories that you value the most; all the ones you want to remember forever. Taking pictures makes memories last forever, you know. So, just in case you lose them again, you'll always have a picture frame of your memories to wake up to every morning! This way," Amy clasped her hands and tilted her head with her kiss-curls swaying along. "You'll never forget!"

Shadow's face didn't change. Not a twitch of the eye or a flinch of the lip, nothing to express disbelief or astonishment of her almost psychic ability to understand his hardships with a disturbingly _Maria-esque_ outlook. His ever-intense staring remained just that. The blue, now behind the scenes of a cliche moment between the black and the pink, couldn't help but crane his neck out and watch the black suspiciously.

Although Shadow's face did not melt into a look of affection, the eyes under those frowning eyebrows were swimming with emotions like rays of sunlight trapped behind glass. His reds searched her greens, and her greens smiled at his reds.

Sonic's eyes widened when Shadow opened his mouth and lowered his chin to nod solemnly, "...Thank you, Amy Rose. I will not forget."

Grinning, Amy put a hand on Shadow's shoulder. His body became a stiff board under that hand when her 10mm eyelashes rested on her cheeks as she puckered up. He leaned sideways to shy away from her when she boosted up on her tippy toes, but in the end, to only kiss his cheek. The warmth graced his skin like a tingly touch that melted away minutes after her lips had left it. Like a dumbfounded deer, he blinked. No hints of a blush to be found, but a reaction just as good as any.

"Merry Christmas, Shadow!" Amy sang, and he'd never felt so silly in his life.

Shadow watched her every move in curiosity as she set her affections on Sonic and pulled his face down to hers to kiss his cheek. Sonic groaned and squirmed against her cheek-kiss, snapping his eyes shut like he was waiting for a good thrashing. He blinked stupidly when her hands left his cheeks, giving him the chance to register what she got away with.

"Merry Christmas, Sonic!" Amy beamed happily in her blush, Sonic's eye twitching at her as he held the back of his hand to his cheek to both hide his blush and wipe those 'cooties' away.

Satisfied with herself, Amy Rose left both confounded hedgehogs in their heads to reflect on what just happened. They watched her cotton-hemmed dress bounce as she returned to Cream. The reality around them volumed back into bustling humans and whooping laughter while the cafe shop's Christmas party went on without them.

"..."

"..."

"...So," Sonic's ears flattened as he grinned at Shadow.

Shadow, with his eyes now closed in utmost indifference, grunted with the flick of his ear.

"_Thaaank~ you, Amy Roseee~, I will not forgeeet~_, huh?"

Potential?

...Perhaps.**  
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